This disclosure relates to a device that cools cutaneous and sub-cutaneous tissues. This disclosure also relates to a method of manufacturing the device.
Increased cooling in cutaneous and sub-cutaneous tissues can lead to improved blood flow to the cutaneous tissues and sub-cutaneous tissues is useful for maintaining a smooth appearance of the cutaneous tissues and sub-cutaneous tissues and for minimizing wrinkles. It is also useful for a quick recovery from damage to the cutaneous tissues and sub-cutaneous tissues caused by abrasions, cuts, injuries, and the like.
Direct cooling of the cutaneous tissues and sub-cutaneous tissues generally causes vasoconstriction, related to the extent and duration of cooling, that follows a deceivingly simple pattern of an immediate vasoconstriction followed by a slow further reduction in blood flow, disguising the multiplicity of mechanisms acting to bring it about. Although the cutaneous vasoconstriction accompanying local cooling is part of local control, intrinsic to the tissue, important contributions arise from sensory and autonomic nerves. Indeed, local cooling in the presence of blockade of either sensory nerves or sympathetic vasoconstrictor function reverses the vasoconstriction seen at the onset of local cooling to a transient vasodilation. The mechanism for this vasodilation is not known.
Because it is transient and dependent on the rate of cooling, a depletable substance rather than biophysical effects of the lower temperature is suggested. It can be provoked in neurally intact tissue with a sufficient rate and extent of cooling. This implies that sensory nerves, likely originating from cold receptors, inhibit an intrinsic vasodilator response to cooling. The vasodilation can lead to increased blood flow to the site of an injury when it is subjected to cooling.
Often commercially available devices that are used for cooling the cutaneous tissues and sub-cutaneous tissues operate at air pressures that are greater than 5 bars. Such air pressures can further damage the cutaneous tissues and sub-cutaneous tissues. In addition, such devices are heavier than ten pounds and are thus not portable. It is therefore desirable to have a device that can cool the cutaneous tissues and/or sub-cutaneous tissues while using a fluid pressure of less than 1 bar and that are light enough to be portable by the average human being.